Oh I do like to be beside the seaside



Catching the morning sun

We spent a glorious outing along the sea coast south of Yokohama exploring the beaches. This is Iwakaigan, a secluded beach nead Manazuru, sheltered from the influence of the typhoon passing by. Now the summer season is over, the beach was pretty deserted, but the parking area still cost 1500yen, and we didn't plan to stay long, so we parked at the side of the road. Even then, we landed two no parking flyers, but the area doesn't seem to have woken up to twenty minutes /100yen coin parking era. Claire and me had fun running in and out of the waves along the seashore, romping and scampering, before we took a quick wash down and headed back up the road to Hiratsuka.

It looks like the weather was perfect, only it wasn't really, intermittent showers, but we managed to be driving when it rained and catch the sun for the beach. The waves here were really quite scary, loads of surfers: we parked at Hanamizu Resthouse by the Lawson and walked along the beach chasing pigeons by the rolling surf. I was scared Claire would get dragged in by the waves, but she skipped and zipped, always teasingly along the shore beyond the waves, simply enjoying the workout running on sand darting after pigeons and crows.

Burrs

I can't count the hours I spent yesterday combing the burrs out of Claire's fine silky hair, which is a bit like mine, in that it matts and tangles easily, being so soft and fuzzy. Fortunately her coat is not too thick, so I set to with a doggie comb and work on her ears, then her silken forearms, downy chest fur and underarms, and finally brush out her slightly more springy tail. Nice and soothing after a mad run through the thickets and underbrush...

On a different note, there's a local Anipro doggie rescue event at Umi no Koen Park as part of the beach events near Hakkeijima Sea Paradise on Sunday 18th from 1300. Cain, the 3 year old setter who looks a tad like one of Claire's puppies (see my link) should be there- he's up for adoption, so if any of you reading are interested... I've been invited, so perhaps I'll be there with Claire if i can make it...

A walk in Yokohama Shinrin Park

I'm trying out the new blogger editing system in the hope that it will be easier to use...these pictures were taken after our visit to Forest Table Cafe, and we had an hour long walk under the trees, and only managed to loop round about half the park.

Claire staring at the underbrush, ready for more...she's dried out already after having jumped in the pond to chase the ducks, raced and roamed hither, thither and yonder...no wonder i'm sitting down...

Claire is desperate to double back and get at the pond again...

Here I am flaked out with the action...Claire and I had a wonderful time. I'm definitely coming here again soon.

Kuraki Park Cherry: the park is the most beautiful spacious
area, reminding me of parks in the UK

Well, I've got used to the pictures thing, but I don't know how to write text inbetween pictures. Still I guess I'll get the hang of the new blogging format in time...

Forest Table Dog Cafe

We decided to take Claire for a walk in Yokohama's Shinrin Park, but we also wanted lunch, so we found Forest Table on the web. It doesn't seem to have a site of its own, but is mentioned in a date spot site among others.

We parked in the Shinrin Park Parking Area 2 and walked over. The pretty owner generously refunds 300 yen parking for orders over 2000yen.

I immediately began chirping with enthusiasm at the English garden style entrance flower beds, the Tokienesque woody decor, the attention to detail, and the warm welcoming ambience. The food was divine...

. T

The owner bakes the pumpkinseed rolls with dough imported from Germany. A joy to behold, a joy to eat. The basil dressing mozarella tomato croissant sandwich I had flooded me with the best memories of Europe, although perhaps the food there never was as good as this. This lady knows how to delight and nurture. The coffee...mmmm...aromatic, purrfect, a work of art, presented in beautiful mugs with brown and white sugar and cream, delicious, and the icecream...heavenly. Needless to say I am going there again soon.

Claire sat patiently under the table, intermittently lapping her bowl of water, and barked once at the delivery man bringing in a parcel, but the cafe mama was very understanding and put us at ease, saying that all the visitng dogs, big and small, barked at deliveries. Join me there for a ladies lunch, readers, friends and followers!

Exploring freedom

According to TrainPet.com, "English setters are a very active breed throughout their lives...They are very rambunctious and love to run outdoors.This dog needs to run free in a safe area (huge field with no roads close by or a large fenced area) every day. Long, brisk daily walks are absolutely necessary if runs are not an option." So here we are in Kuraki park exploring how to overcome the impediment of a 10m leash (obligatory in parks) to give Claire a modicum of freedom to RUN! without killing me in the process...:P Claire has begun to follow in my general direction when I call, overtaking me as she likes to run ahead foraying, so i've developed a feint and run method, whereby I let her choose at a fork in the path and then purposely choose the other one, calling her when she's gone almost the full length of the leash. This means she runs back and past me hell for leather, getting about 20m of all out dash before i peter out and have to slow down to catch my wind. Watch the video!

Local dog run

Got on the internet and found a dog run in a local park, 10 minutes ride by car. Perfect, I thought, when I'm too tired to run with Claire I'll just load her in the car and she can run in the dog run...until we got there, and saw the size, or rather lack of size...

Claire never got beyond a trot, as usual rimming the fence, which was a tennis net, but all the interesting looking bushes are beyond the fence, and the space was almost claustrophobic. Fortunately it was the evening, so there was some shade, not that the two trees in the fenced off area offered much. Claire was categorized as a large dog by the park authorities, and is not allowed in the (also tiny) other dog run, but has to hire the whole Dog Run for Large Canines, costing a 100 yen for thirty minutes, plus a monthly registration fee of 500 yen. I took along her vaccination and tax papers along with her dog tag to register her, but decided since the place was so small and probably stiflingly hot in the sun it wasn't worth it. The noise from the two nearby roads, the overhead motorway and the two-lane commuter highway, also made the run less than pleasant. However, it was a nice little outing to somewhere new, and deepened my knowledge of our local area. Apparently the locals worked very hard to lobby the city for permission to install the dog runs, and the makeshift quality of the fencing shows just how much local effort in face of bureaucratic opposition went into the project (if it had been planned from the start it would have been perfectly designed and cost millions). Way to go...now if it had only been a little spacier...

My favorite snapshot

This is my favorite picture of Claire, lately, up in the park, as ever watching pigeons. Even though the other dogs are playing, she won't join the crowd at this particular spot, her heart is set on the birds.